U.S. Navy Barracks' Swastika Formation to be Camouflaged

The U.S. Navy has budgeted $600,000 to obscure the fact that one of its building complexes resembles the infamous Nazi symbol from the air.

The amphibious base at Coronado, Calif., constructed in the late '60s, serves as barracks for Seabees. From ground level and inside nearby buildings, the controversial shape cannot be seen. Neither are there any civilian or military landing patterns to provide such a view to airline passengers. But Google Earth changed all that when satellite images how much the configuration of four L-shape buildings looked like a swastika.

Additional walkways, "camouflage" landscaping, and rooftop photovoltaic cells are now being drafted to change how the building looks from overhead. The base already gets 3 percent of its power from solar energy and has been looking to increase that percentage, so smudging out a Nazi symbol is probably as good a reason as any.